Please note that space in this online class is limited to 75 individuals. Submit your registration form and payment as soon as possible to ensure your spot in the fall class. You will receive confirmation that you are registered once we have received your payment for the course.

If you are interested in earning your Master Gardener™ badge, you will want to exploreOption 2: Online Course and Volunteering, which begins January 2010. This option includes the online Master Gardener™ basic training course and will require participants to complete volunteer hours at their local OSU Extension office in order to become a certified OSU Master Gardener™. We will alert you via email when registration opens for this option.

Feel free to contact us if you have questions about registering. Or, visit theMaster Gardener™ Onlineweb pages for more details on this sustainable gardening program offered through OSU Extension Service in cooperation with OSU Extended Campus.

We look forward to helping you reach your gardening goals with the help of online learning.

It's time to slow down and stop this fast-track rush to sell off control of land in Minto-Brown Park before the public is well-informed about the stakes. Image by c_smith2k000 via Flickr

One of the most maddening things about the city's proposal to sell off control of 200 acres of precious, rich agricultural land on Minto-Brown Island is the way that the whole thing, from the very start, seems to have been designed to be accomplished without any public awareness and certainly without significant public involvement.

The original proposal was put onto the City Council's CONSENT agenda -- the one that gets no discussion! And until a citizen told the City Council that the project wasn't even listed on the City website stimulus projects page, it was missing in action there as well.

And today, August 7, here are the "major topics" listed on the city website (list below). Notice anything that's conspicuous by its absence? That's right -- there's a proposal to radically change the use of a beloved city park by permanently ceding control of 200 acres of it to the federal government -- in direct contradiction to the current park master plan (which calls for agriculture to be continued, not reduced by 80%) that is nowhere listed as a "major topic" on the city website.

By way of contrast with the way Salem has handled this radical change in activity in Minto, let's compare the process that the city makes you go through to get a residential parking zone established on your street (to prevent high school kids and downtown employees from parking in front of your house all day):

To get your street added to the 90-minute-only parking zone, the citizen petitioner is required to knock on the door and notify 100% --- each and every one --- of the affected neighbors, even if they already have a no parking zone in front of their house. THEN the citizen is required to submit the petition to the Neighborhood Association for their endorsement. If the citizen fails to contact _all_ the affected residences (and to get 3/4 support from them all), or to go through the neighborhood association, no action will be taken.

Is the permanent loss of control of 200 acres of a unique public park really less significant than getting a 90-minute parking zone established in a residential neighborhood? If not, then why has the public not been given at least the same level of notice and opportunity to comment?

Revising the definition of "livestock" to exclude chickens will make it much easier for Salem to permit backyard hens. Image via Wikipedia

Please take a moment to send a note to the Salem Planning Commission to ask them to recommend that Salem take chickens OUT of the definition of "livestock."And if you can attend this upcoming Planning Commission meeting, please do.

What: Planning Commission Public Hearing

When:Tuesday, August 18 at 5:30 pm

Where: SalemCity Hall, 555 Liberty St., Room 240.

Why: A hearing on whether the Planning Commission should recommend that Salem City Council correct the definition of livestock to exclude chickens. (Livestock is forbidden in residential areas, so if chickens are defined as livestock, then no hens in most of Salem.)

Please send a brief letter or email to the commission staff to urge the Commission to revise the definition of livestock to exclude chickens. Include your name, address.

This change would make it easier to get an ordinance permitting backyard hens and to revise that ordinance without having to go through the detour of the Planning Commission. A backyard hens ordinance will be discussed at a future city council meeting, probably in September.Getting the definition of livestock revised to exclude chickens will make it much easier for Salem to permit backyard hens!

Note that Planning Commission meetings are on Tuesdays, but they are held in the same place and have the same format as City Council meetings (signup to speak, 3 minutes only).

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WORD

"Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us." (Henrik Tikkanen)

"Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for lovers and friends." (Lewis Mumford)Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay

If you are thinking a year ahead, plant seeds. If you are thinking 10 years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking 100 years ahead, educate the people.Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say: This is my community, and it’s my responsibility to make it better. (Gov. Tom McCall)

Why This Blog?

Jan 19, 2008: LOVESalem reaches the web, bringing a vitally needed message to Oregon's capital city: We must Oregon-ize to put the needs of people before the needs of cars. This requires that we live our environmental values -- that we LOVE (Live Our Values Environmentally) Salem -- by working to stop the Sprawl Machine.

The Sprawl Machine is a ravenous beast that feeds on green space, close-in neighborhoods, and property taxes and that excretes monstrous, ugly road projects that pollute the air, increase mortality and morbidity, promote climate change, weaken families and neighborhoods, and help weaken the social fabric and civic participation.

The Sprawl Machine works by constantly luring its prey with promises that the problems created by cars can be addressed by doing more of the same -- building more lanes, more bridges, consuming ever more money. In other words, the Sprawl Machine promises that we can keep doing the same thing over and over, while expecting a different result this time.

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